‘Bebo for adults’ social networking site sees meteoric growth

IS Bertie Ahern among the 125,000 new users to sign up to Facebook since January?

Well, according to new user details compiled yesterday, he very well could be — as the information showed around 20 members of staff at the department of An Taoiseach have signed up to the website.

The figures, compiled by IT analyst Damien Mulley, show the number of Irish people using the social networking website rocketed from just 6,000 to 131,000 in the past nine months.

The statistics provide a detailed analysis of the types of people using the website including a breakdown of sex, marital status and workplace.

Among the 89,000 Irish users that have registered their sex with the site, women far outweigh the number of men joining with almost 51,900 women registering compared to 37,440 men.

The data also provides an age demographic that confirms Facebook is the mature alternative to Bebo as the figures show the number of users in 25-35 age category stands at 71,980, compared with 55,020 people in the 18-25’s category.

Mr Mulley was also able to compile statistics to show companies with high numbers of employees who have registered for the site.

Microsoft comes out on top with approximately 1,160 employees based in Ireland using Facebook, while about 320 people working for Google in Ireland, along with 20 people working in Leinster House and a further 20 working at the Department of An Taoiseach.

In terms of marital status, about 30,880 of those who joined Facebook in the past nine months are single, while approximately 11,320 are married.

The figures show that almost 8,500 college students are on Facebook with Trinity College Dublin playing host to the highest number of social networkers, at 2,160, followed by UCD with 1,300 users.

Mr Mulley said the figures showed Facebook was rapidly catching up on Bebo in the battle for social networking users.

“Bebo may be the king when it comes to social networks but Facebook is growing at a massive rate in Ireland,” he said.

“The age profile of Facebook and the considerable usage of Facebook by business people shows that the ‘Bebo for adults’ nickname given to Facebook is ringing through.”